#5 Time for Development and Gender Equality

Welcome to the fifth issue of the monthly newsletter “Sustainable Times”, which keeps the memory of news, current developments and innovative ideas on sustainable development.

We are in a period in which the number and impact of disasters is increasing in Turkey. After the earthquakes that took place on February 6 and continued afterwards, torrential rains turned into floods in ?anl?urfa, Ad?yaman and Malatya on March 15. Diyarbak?r and Mardin are also among our affected provinces. The needs in the disaster area continue. Since the first day, we have been continuing our work and support in coordination and cooperation with the Needs Map ( ?htiya? Haritas? ). On the one hand, we embrace development journalism and share with idemahaber, our news platform that we created in this field.

We left behind the 8 March International Women's Day. Our gender equality agenda continues in relation to disasters. We are aware of the importance of gender equality for a better present and future. With the awareness that disasters deepen inequalities even more, in this bulletin, we draw our route under the headings;

• Time for development and gender equality in the ecosystem
• How has the gender equality agenda changed from past to present?
• What developments are foreseen for gender equality in the future?
• What is the connection between disasters and gender equality?
• Time for development and gender equality at IDEMA

We would like to thank Dr. Ece ?ztan, a Political Scientist from the Ba? Etkile?imli ??renme Derne?i team who contributed to the newsletter.

Now is the time for gender equality for sustainable development!

The report published by the United Nations in 2022 tells us that the world needs 286 years to reach gender equality. While inequality continues in the current situation, when it comes to disasters that deepen inequalities, women are 14 times more likely to lose their lives than men.

In countries where the gender gap is deep, disasters can create different grievances and different needs for women and girls. Among the reasons that deepen inequality, we can count gender roles, restricted mobility opportunities, lack of need-oriented resources and difficulty in accessing resources, increased care responsibility for children-elderly-patients, increased risk of violence and discrimination.

There are many issues that we need to talk about in this field. From this point of view, we asked our questions about gender equality to Dr. Ece ?ztan, a Political Scientist from the Ba? Etkile?imli ??renme Derne?i team:

How have the gender equality, women's rights agenda and the work done have changed in the last 20 years in Turkey?

The 2000s were a period in which gender-oriented studies and the women's movement diversified at both academic and political levels. The women's movement and the previous accumulation and experience of academic feminism in Turkey led to both the geographical spread of gender-focused studies and the diversification of the field. So now feminism was "everywhere". Even the numerical increase in the number of studies you see when you search with the keyword "gender" in the last 20 years in the Y?K Thesis Search Catalog shows this. You can see both different disciplines and the spread to different universities from every region of Turkey.

The 2000s were the years when feminism spread across generations and regions. It is also a period in which alliances and collaborations develop between different organizations. It is possible to see these empowering alliances, especially in experiences such as the creation of the Turkish Penal Code Action Platform and the Women's Coalition, the preparation of the CEDAW shadow reports and the amendments to the Turkish Penal Code. Different organizations of the women's movement continued to come together on platforms such as the Shelters Congress, Women's Congress, Women's Initiative for Peace, 8 March Women's Marches and Local Agenda 21. What defines the last 10 years of this period is the increasing dose of oppression and anti-feminism.

“Increasing pressure has narrowed the areas of common work in the field of gender equality.”

We have lived and are living in a time when the women's movement is ignored, deaf to their demands, and moreover, the word gender has been completely removed from the language. The names of centers carrying out women's studies and gender studies were changed, pressure was exerted on academics working on gender studies at universities, and thesis titles were interfered with. For example, among the peace academics who were expelled from their universities with the decree laws, there were many scientists working in these fields. Despite increasing pressure, the "mainstreaming" of gender studies continued. After 2010, a large number of studies started to be carried out in these areas in the private sector. Combating violence against women and rights based on production became an important area of concentration in this period. In addition, the dimensions of gender related to men and masculinity have also come to the fore, and studies have begun in the fields of involved fatherhood and egalitarian masculinity.

What kind of developments, projects and collaborations do you foresee for the future of gender equality? If yes, what kind of work is carried out in your institution?

We need to emphasize more that gender equality is related to the egalitarian transformation of institutions and life as a whole. This area needs to be removed from the "and women" approach. We need to work by thinking that gender-based power relations are related to all power relations in human-human and human-nature relations. For this reason, we need to transform gendered power relations while talking about the climate crisis, improving scientific research and innovation processes, and working on psycho-social security and work-life balance in workplaces. We need to deepen this kind of approach to gender mainstreaming.

“We need to build links between different fields and organizations.”

Ba? Interactive Learning Association, where I work in the field of civil society, tries to carry out gender studies with this perspective. We use gender lenses when working with the elderly and creating interactive learning designs. This intersectional view also applies to the organizations we collaborate with and try to establish links with. We carry out studies that will bring together the production of academic knowledge, politics, civil society and even the private sector in different projects. Connecting for us means connecting both issues and different institutions. Another thing that the bond metaphor symbolizes is the networks we establish with the possibilities of digital.

How do you relate disaster awareness and gender equality?

Disasters and their consequences are directly related to gender relations. There are gendered power relations from disaster recovery possibilities to post-disaster humanitarian and social processes. We see these inequalities in every area, from the fact that women have to take into account the clothes they wear while escaping from the disaster, to the possibilities of accessing a safe place due to the fact that the decisions within the family are made by the spouses.

“Women and girls have differing needs in disaster areas.”

Safe accommodation areas, private areas, hygiene and toilet needs, needs arising from menstrual periods, pregnancy and puerperal period needs differ. In addition, there are processes that turn the disaster into another permanent destruction in women's lives, such as not sending girls to school after disasters and early marriages. Moreover, human and women trafficking increases in times such as disasters and wars. It is necessary to work specifically on the safety and psycho-social needs of girls who have lost their caregivers. After disasters, women may have to live with their abusive spouses or ex-spouses. Or, in general, the post-disaster period can lead to an increase in physical, psychological and economic violence against women. While talking about the gender dimension of disasters, we also need to talk about important mental problems due to the deterioration of the role of men in maintaining the house and providing a livelihood. The increasing household burden of women, the burden of rebuilding a life is increasing. Opportunities for independent decision making are getting narrower.

“We need a long-term recovery perspective after disasters.”

We need to create an environment that will raise the standards of girls and women and aim for a better life. Otherwise, they are likely to experience new destructions after disasters. We, as Ba? Association, are members of Suna's Daughters Platform. There, we focused on the well-being of girls in the disaster area after the earthquake as the Girls Focused Solution Group. We need gender lenses to heal and be well. Not just for women and girls, but for all of us to have a "better" life!

Time for development and gender equality at IDEMA

Gender equality is one of the areas we provide consultancy services in the categories of research design, impact measurement and evaluation, corporate social responsibility strategy design, digital infrastructure, cultural mapping, risk management and resilience monitoring. We hope that the Mersin KüME (Production Center for Women) Project, Ahenk Cooperative, Beri Cooperative, Ghana Women and Youth-led SMEs in Ghana, Digital Platform for NEET Women Project and Brothers Women Involved in Life Platform, which we contribute in this field, will be inspirational.

Mersin KüME (Production Center for Women) Project (July 2019 - March 2022)

KüME is a project funded by the European Union, run by the World Bank and implemented by IDEMA. The aim of the project was to establish a women-led social enterprise in Mersin with the joint participation of 25 Syrian and Turkish women. With the project, we contributed to the development of the social enterprise established in Mersin and the capacity of its individual members through various activities for 18 months. As part of the project, we created an online training platform. Within the scope of the project, the Ahenk Cooperative was established to create income generating resources.

Ahenk Cooperative (February 2021 - Ongoing)

Ahenk Cooperative, which was established within the scope of Mersin KüME project is the first example of multi-stakeholder cooperatives in Turkey where all of the founding partners are women. The cooperative is a non-profit organization. The cooperative aims to raise awareness on fair trade, improve social and economic living conditions, and transform local products into value-added and innovative products in line with the understanding of fair trade. In this context, we support the Ahenk Cooperative in the development of new products, the creation of marketing and sales strategies, the development of the technical capacities of the members and the sustainability of the cooperative.

Beri Cooperative (July 2019 - Ongoing)

Beri Cooperative is a social cooperative established in Ankara by Syrian and Turkish women with the support of the "ANKA Project" supported by the World Bank, within the scope of the European Union's Aid Program for Refugees in Turkey, which started in July 2019. Beri Cooperative, which has a social benefit-oriented business model, takes its first steps by developing and producing baby products in order to make clean clothing widespread by producing sustainable and clean clothing. As IDEMA, we have been supporting both the financial and operational processes of the Beri Cooperative within the scope of our project supported by the World Bank since December 2022. In order to ensure the sustainability of the cooperative, we work on improving operational processes as well as capacity building activities. In this context, we provide support in creating a marketing and sales strategy, accelerating branding processes, and managing financial and production processes.

Women and Youth-led MSMEs in Ghana (October 2021- April 2022)

The project emerged with the need for rapid intervention in order to ensure their sustainability and create employment for SMEs in Ghana and around the world, which were severely affected during the pandemic process. In partnership with Beyond Group and MDF consortium, as part of UNDP's project, our services for Women and Youth-led SMEs include mapping existing ecosystem support; assessment of challenges, needs and opportunities; designing a prototype to support an integrated ecosystem; piloting, evaluation and reporting of the prototype in collaboration with a wide range of stakeholders.

Digital Platform for NEET Women Project (January 2022, June 2022)

Supported by the Sabanc? Foundation, Digital Platform for NEET Women Project is carried out by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Sabanc? Foundation in cooperation with the Ministry of Family and Social Services and the Ministry of Labor and Social Security. The project aims to increase the participation of young women in NEET (Neither Education nor Employment) in economic and social life. The services we provide within the scope of the project include the preparation and implementation of the project roadmap, the creation of the online training platform and its contents, the updating of the platform and the continuation of cooperation with the relevant business partners.

Brothers Women Involved in Life (April 2022 - Ongoing)

PERNOD RICARD TURKEY's main sponsorship and implemented by BROTHERS under the consultancy of IDEMA, WOMEN INVOLVED IN LIFE PLATFORM is a project designed to develop women's skills and competencies in the professions of the future. The scope of this project includes the creation of an online training platform and training content, content design of online and face-to-face meetings, community facilitation and field implementation. Participants who register to the training platform and complete the trainings in the relevant field are encouraged to “involve in life” by collectively providing solutions to various problems with bootcamp setups, which are defined as one of the most efficient methods to transform the competencies they have gained after the trainings into products or services.

Closing

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